Police Arrested and Detained him While They Raided the 20th St. Encampment.Police Arrested and Detained him While They Raided the 20th St. Encampment.
Hard Knox Talks: Sober Stories. Real Talk.
A housing advocate and an Indigenous elder share experiences from Saskatoon’s 20th Street encampment, while a legal aid lawyer explains how poverty, policing and charter rights collide. The conversation links homelessness, unsafe housing and spiritual practice with long-term recovery and the fight for basic dignity.
1:20:47•27 Oct 2026
Street Law, Smudge, and a Charter Fight at the 20th Street Encampment
Episode Overview
- Community spaces like encampments can feel safer and more humane than many traditional shelters for unhoused people.
- Poverty-related survival acts are frequently treated as crimes, leaving people punished for simply existing.
- Unsafe rental housing, with no heat or hot water, remains widespread and hard to challenge, even with legal help.
- Charter protections apply to everyone, and government actions against encampments must be justified and minimally harmful.
- Cultural practices such as smudging and “bringing back the circle” play a vital role in many people’s recovery and sense of identity.
“Poverty is criminalized, and that's a huge problem. The question becomes, where can people legally exist if we criminalize every different aspect of existence?”
He talks about how his son’s ninth‑birthday visit to prison, and a small necklace smuggled through security, pushed him to change his life: “Here, dad, I don’t want you to be in here no more.” David shares how his own history – being taken from his parents in the ’60s scoop, losing his language and culture, and witnessing children die in unsafe housing – led him into housing advocacy and eventually into the 20th Street encampment, where residents called him “the chief”.
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This conversation centres on homelessness, housing injustice, and recovery through the story of David Fineday, a long-time resident of Saskatoon and former cocaine user who has been substance-free from injection drugs for 30 years.
He describes community life there, from teepees, smudging and shared meals to “street law” that pushed out people who preyed on others, and contrasts that sense of belonging with shelters where people are controlled, separated from family, and often feel unsafe.
Alongside David, lawyer Michelle McDonald from CLASSIC explains how poverty is “criminalised” in Saskatoon – from tickets for fires and public urination to landlords charging high rent for homes with no hot water or heating – and why a charter challenge has been launched over the camp’s removal. She breaks down what mischief charges, long detentions, and bylaw enforcement can mean for people already living on the edge, and questions whether pushing people out truly makes anyone safer.
You’ll hear about smudging as daily healing, the idea of “bringing back the circle”, and the raw reality that many are just a couple of missed paycheques away from similar struggles. If you’re interested in how recovery, culture, law, and basic human dignity intersect on the streets, this episode might have you asking: what kind of community do you want to help build?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.